We are often asked what a Men’s Shed (hereafter simply referred to as a “shed”) is, and the answer can be long!  But to put it in a rather large nutshell, a shed brings men together in one community space to share their skills, have a laugh, and work on practical tasks individually (personal projects) or as a group (for the shed or community).

The sort of projects a shed tackles is entirely up to the shed concerned, however most sheds around New Zealand take on some community projects, examples of which include building playgrounds for pre-school centres, repairing toy library stock, repairing old bikes for distribution to poorer communities, building planter boxes for the main street of the local central business district, and the list goes on.

The shed is a great place for blokes to learn new skills.  We see builders teaching engineers some of their skills and vice versa, we see accountants being shown a plethora of skills they never had the opportunity to learn in their working life.  Some sheds have women members or have sessions catering for women who wish to acquire new skills and get involved in personal or community projects.